4MWT

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What did I see
  • Less paper, using mini-whiteboards for follow up tasks. I think we use too much paper for various reading tasks which causing confusion for some children. I would like to investigate using small whiteboards for to-do lists for the children to refer to. We would have to then set the expectation that their work was laid out in a way we could follow which task they were doing which has been an ongoing challenge.
  • Divided spaces – expectations for different learning spaces. I think this would be a great visual for children to make choices of where to work for different tasks.
  • All children were on-task and engaged. They knew where to find the information they needed and what the expectations were for each activity. Each teacher in the collaborative team seemed to be following a similar programme which I think helped with transitions between groups. We are doing something similar in our room with the follow up tasks being based on the shared book.
What did I not see
  • collaborative/interactive tasks. The follow up tasks for reading were all very book and writing based which may be a reflection on the ability and age of the children. With the dynamic of our class I think including some more interactive activities as part of reading helps with engagement of some children. However the trade-off with this is the noise level.
What am I going to do
  • Look into how to divide our space visually. The senior rooms did feel quite cluttered for my personal liking but I can see the benefit of having physically divided spaced with curtains etc. I just need to think about how I can make this work for me!
  • Cut down on the amount of paper we are using during reading by using small whiteboards to write up follow-up tasks. The seniors were also using chromebooks with reading contracts on for some children to complete but I think this may be beyond many of our children’s ICT skills. I would like to look in to using photos/slides on ipads as mini ‘interactive’ whiteboards for follow up activities. I think this would help with expectations for many of our children.

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